EA in the final for worst company in USA


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Here they stand, surrounded by the carved-up carcasses of their fallen competitors. "Make us proud... Win the poo," the ghosts of the vanquished call out from another realm, demanding that these two remaining contenders for Worst Company In America prove that all this bloodshed was not in vain.

For the second year in a row, Bank of America has slaughtered its way through the WCIA brackets, only to end up in the Final Death Match against a rookie with such street cred it only needs to go by two letters: EA.

These contenders share a ravenous desire to swallow up smaller competitors in their respective industries with little to no regard to the possible consequences.

Bank of America expanded throughout the entire decade leading up to the collapse of the housing market and had the hubris to believe it could continue to do so even when things started to head south.

BofA can claim it had no idea it was buying such a toxic pile of crap when it scooped up the remains of Countrywide for virtually nothing. Even if you can believe that, the fact remains that Bank of America spent the years after the Countrywide acquisition doing little to nothing to repair the damage. False foreclosures, improper property seizures, misleading mortgage adjustment programs, robosigned documents and the subsequent lawsuits and settlements, have done significant damage to BofA's public image and its coffers.

EA, meanwhile, has made a habit of sniffing out some of the best smaller video game companies, which are then acquired for their intellectual properties or to remove a competitor from the marketplace. Mass consolidation in any industry rarely works out to the benefit of the consumer, but the gaming business is one that regulators, the courts and the mainstream media have by and large ignored.

Another thing these two seemingly very different companies have in common is their desire to nickel and dime consumers at every turn.

EA is among the industry leaders in pushing for more and more "microtransactions" in users' gaming experience. For its major titles it seems to be creating exclusive and add-on content, not with the game in mind, but with the sole intention of milking consumers who may not realize how quickly those small purchases add up.

And unlike the fee-happy discount airlines that use the "everything is a la carte" model to keep base prices low, a new EA game will run you $60 for the most basic version available, making it easily the most expensive form of home entertainment.

Many of EA's sports titles ? especially its Madden NFL franchise ? are bestsellers with annual releases and exclusivity deals with the corresponding leagues. This means that no one else can enter the market to compete with a lower-price NFL game, effectively allowing EA to set the price for new releases.

The question you as WCIA voters need to ask yourself is whether or not such transgressions are on par or worse than Bank of America's attempts to weed out those consumers who dare to have a standard checking account, especially one with balance smaller than five figures?

After all, if you want to avoid BofA's fee-frenzy, there are any number of other banks and credit unions you can try. But if you want to de-stress from a day of being kicked around by the world by playing a game of FIFA Soccer with your friends, you're out of options.

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EA in the final four worst company in USA

Nah, it's actually down to the final.

EA will win this title. I personally love BofA. Their crappy stock has made me a great deal of money.

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Many of EA's sports titles ? especially its Madden NFL franchise ? are bestsellers with annual releases and exclusivity deals with the corresponding leagues. This means that no one else can enter the market to compete with a lower-price NFL game, effectively allowing EA to set the price for new releases.

That is the number one thing I hate about EA. The rest I don't care about, but this ****es me off to no end.

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Yawn.

If other companies had made good enough games to sell more than EA, they would have the exclusive titles instead of EA.

In short; stop whining.

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Yawn.

If other companies had made good enough games to sell more than EA, they would have the exclusive titles instead of EA.

In short; stop whining.

Gamers? Stop whining? Yeahhhhhh

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That is the number one thing I hate about EA. The rest I don't care about, but this ****es me off to no end.

oh get out of here. so you must hate 2k then too right cause of the exclusive license they had with the MLB? NFL put a bid out, EA won. end of. what do you expect them to do? your beef should be towards roger goddell and the NFL

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That is the number one thing I hate about EA. The rest I don't care about, but this ****es me off to no end.

Don't blame EA, blame the NFL. If it was not EA that got the exclusive deal, it would have been another company.

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oh get out of here. so you must hate 2k then too right cause of the exclusive license they had with the MLB? NFL put a bid out, EA won. end of. what do you expect them to do? your beef should be towards roger goddell and the NFL

Don't blame EA, blame the NFL. If it was not EA that got the exclusive deal, it would have been another company.

You guys are making it sound like I hate EA and love the NFL.

You are wrong.

I love EA, and their games. I love the NFL too.

I hate monopolies on products and stupid exclusive rights like this. Competition is what drives games to be great, so both EA and the NFL are wrong in this regard. It is the same what if as if a company had exclusive rights on FPS games, or lets say a specific genre, like WWII FPS games, and no one else could make them, that makes more sense for the comparison.

It isn't right to let companies do this, EA or the NFL, or any sports league for that matter.

Drives down competition, and makes the current product stale, without a reason to innovate.

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Yawn.

If other companies had made good enough games to sell more than EA, they would have the exclusive titles instead of EA.

In short; stop whining.

Oh the sweet irony.

How about we twist this into "If other companies had made good enough Operating Systems to sell more than Microsoft, they would have the market share instead of Microsoft."

You should probably go and buy yourself a Windows license and wipe that "bad" (In your words) OS you have installed at the moment. :shifty:

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Thing is BofA is much worse.... They made tons of people homeless over crap paperwork BS. They ruined the economy... EA games you can easily avoid them...

It;s worse to loose your house then it is to have a bad video game ending...

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